The fact that first run houses play a film for two or three weeks does not mean everyone who wants to see the film has seen it. A second run house with reasonable ticket and food prices should do well if programmed properly. You should give some thought to showing other product that is available from classics to foreign and anything that the first run houses are not showing. Being different could be a big plus for you. Your films will come from the distributors that supply any other theatre. Is there a restaurant in this mall? If so would you be prevented from selling food (other than concessions) and beer at the theatre? If the theatre already has digital that's good. If you can afford to buy it to begin with that's fine. But if neither is true you have a little time before it's a necessity. I'm one of those that believes a good 35mm presentation is comparable with digital and the general public won't know or care. I haven't seen any owner or manager say that they have people coming up to the boxoffice asking to see digital. Most are installing digital because they are threatened by some distributors. Good luck.

Moviebuf said:
"This board would be absolutely dead without the bi-weekly: 'I want to open (or reopen) a theatre (or drive in) posts"

This is so true. Of course the potential owners are going to run "cult classics, classics, and genre films" with pizza and beer. If it was only that easy, we would all be running classics and favorite old films.

Well Bob, that format would succeed only in a metro area where no one else is doing it. Yep moviebuf, I am retired but am not ignoring the industry. I don't know if I'd accept the position Jack. It depends on where he's located (yes, I know you're just being sarcastic but I appreciate you anyway).

instead of saying "this board is dead" maybe coming up with an interesting question is a good alternative. And I do disagree: I keep finding interesting debates and views all the time. This week: fund raising/ more digital/ Brenkert family/ 3-D/ sodas banned etc. And keep in mind: a serious amount of people have used bigscreenbiz to research and open theatres. I hear from them constantly. I cannot tell you how many people have done it but the number is significant. Their questions are certainly repetitive and really they just need to hit the books and study but don't think they'll never open a theatre.